IF2 Chapter 7

Hey guys, we've hit 400 views! And a bit more than a 100 visitors, which I'm assuming means that they're re-viewed the story several times! That's great, and I made sure to make this chapter extra long to celebrate. Although, I've only gotten five reviews. Come on guys, leave a review, so make sure to leave one if you especially liked something, or didn't like something, any suggestions or pitches for future chapters? And for the guest who said "mans are pigs, how about little lemons?" Are you calling men pigs? And why are you asking for a lemon after that?! P.S While I will have romantic and/or fluffy chapters later, there won't be any smut here! Maybe love making will be slightly glimpsed and then obviously implied, if that's what the people want.

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Kuo practically jumped when Cole revived her, then she actually flew through the air as she involuntarily flew to Grieger. She was spazzing out a bit, but time seemed to be going agonizingly slow. She saw everything clearly, and felt wired. Her nerves were faster than ever, taking the phrase lightning reflexes to a whole new level. She managed to zip back to Cole.

" Cole, I feel great! Times going backwards, and I'm practically teleporting, and I've got to tell you how I feel! Cole I want to be with you but at the same time I don't and I'm afraid of being with you and I don't know why and I think Zeke is dating Nix and I'm afraid you like Nix or that you're already with her and that you hate me and I think I need to stop because everything is going black." Kuo said all in a blur of mumbling and slurring. Kuo finally passed out to what Cole assumed was lack of air.

"Kuo. Slow down, you're talking too fast and I didn't catch a bit of it. Did you say Zeke? Did something happen? Kuo? You don't look so well, Kuo!" Cole caught her before she hit the floor.

" Herr McGrath, I need your help here, now!" Grieger said as a barrage of rpg's were fired into his left hand, which shattered into a thousand pieces.

"I'm coming!" He said as he carefully dragged Kuo behind a crate for safety.

He started a mad dash to help Grieger, who at some point had taken out the Ice Mercenaries only to barge into the one factory that actually had Bertrand's militia in it.

As he took cover behind a crate, Cole's most omnipotent power worked it's magic again, as about half the militia decided to fire their rockets at him. He dove behind Grieger, who was down to no arms and attempting to stomp out his foes. Cole saw the error in his tactical retreat when the other half of the firing squad shot down Grieger, who toppled back from the direct impact to his chest, only to land on Cole.

Kuo, having shakily gotten up, watched in shock as Cole was squashed. "Cole!" She screamed as she launched herself at the militia. Kuo was mad, as an agent she had been trained to never lose her cool in a fight. To approach it with a tactical sense and never let her emotions get the best of her. All of that training went down with Cole. She shot several arcs of ice at those closest to Cole and Grieger. She put a lot more force into it then usual and took pride that they hit their marks and put them down, despite the lack of accuracy causing them to be hit in the torso-area instead of the head. When she landed, she realized that the rest had managed to get behind cover, and had assembled a sort of firing squad on her too. With all the killing intent she could muster, she slammed her palms flat on the concrete floor, sending out a glass thin layer in a wide area along the floor. She hadn't thought of what she was doing and acted on impulse, but quickly realized that unless they suddenly decided to run at her, she had accomplished nothing. That is until the ice reached the feet of the closest men, and they froze instantly, while their brothers in arms watched in horror. The ice was about halfway to the next factory, and was starting to slow, but the men stood there gawking and were also caught up in the monumental attack, pure terror flashing across their eyes as their final moments were spent bumbling to avoid their inevitable fate. Oh my God, what was that? I know I've never been able to that until now. Kuo was always a bit jealous of Cole, and even Nix, as much as she detested the fact. Their powers were always more brutal. Cole's especially, hell, he had to tone his down for precision so as to not hit any civilians. Nix didn't care about that though, and used her powers without restraint, though they were significantly weaker than Cole's, evening out the playing field. Kuo, on the other hand, relied heavily on precision, as her powers where strong, but not nearly enough as to where she could be sloppy. Freezing a man's brain with one well placed shot ended up being easier than four or five to his chest, which was almost always covered.

" Well, let's see what else I can manage."

As she noticed a lone gunman making his way across a roof, she was deciding on how to take him out when she realized he had stopped running and was quickly lining up a shot at Grieger, also hurting Cole with the splash. With a moment of thought behind it, she shot of a continuous stream of ice at the man, only touching the end of it with her finger as it went flying to the man. She was pleased to see her idea worked when the man was sent flying up into the air a good 5 yards higher into the air and off the roof. She had shot a long pole of sorts at the man, having gained the idea from an experiment she had done with launching herself through the air with ice. Seeing that no one else was in the immediate vicinity, she ran back to Cole. "Grieger, I need you to wake up now." For the first time since his final transformation, she saw Grieger's face. She would have like to say she could still notice some features that Grieger might have retained, but sadly his face was hideously distorted to the point that no one would have been able to differentiate him from the normal ice monsters. No wonder he kept his visor on at all times. To think of what he thought of himself, no longer being able to call himself even remotely human, at least I had that. Poor, poor Grieger. Seeing as how Grieger was in no state to respond, much less get up, she began to panic. Cole had been under there for at least a few minutes now, and she was beginning to wonder if even his super-human strength had been enough to survive the initial slam. No, can't afford to think like that. Come on girl, you can do this damn it! Think!

"Oh my God." That's when Kuo had seen first hand just how efficient her snow pole idea had been. Apparently, it had impaled the man through the gut, instead of just pushing him up, like she had initially thought, and had stabbed into the ground when it landed. The man was ever so slowly sliding down the icicle, and she knew from the size of the wound and where she had hit him, along with the seemingly endless sea of blood on the floor that his death had not been a quick one. That when she grimly realized how to save Cole. She would make a column of ice shoot out underneath Grieger to lift him up. Taking a second look at him she mumbled, "Better make it two." She assumed a crouching position once she had gone to the back of Grieger's head. She sprung up and watched as two towers of ice slowly but surely lifted Grieger to a 45 degree angle. She saw Cole!

"Cole! Cole! Can you get yourself out?!"

"Kuo," he managed to say, albeit weakly. "Come … here." He stuck his hand out to her. That's when she realized his leg was still pinned. She forced the columns a bit higher, sapping the last of the strength she hadn't realized she was using. She pulled out Cole from underneath Griegor, and put him in a corner of the warehouse that miraculously hadn't been blown to smithereens. She took out her radio and called out to Zeke.

"Zeke, zeke? It's Kuo. I'm here at one of Bertrand's warehouses, and Cole's hurt, badly."

There was a short pause before Zeke answered, " I know the district. I'm coming, Cole had told me of this mission. We had thought there to be a Blast Core there. How hurt is he?"

" It's got to be pretty bad, I mean, his leg looks seriously broken, but he hasn't recovered yet. I'll try to get him some power, but he's never been hurt this badly before, not even when that truck rammed us. I think he's more hurt on the inside. Zeke, hurry please."

"I'm pulling up now. Kuo, where are, whoah."

"What's wrong Zeke, are there more milita?"

"No, Kuo, I don't think anyone survived this. Look to your left, you should see me driving up soon."

Kuo did and saw Zeke was quite a distance away. Then she realized just how far her ice had reached. It had gone nearly twice the distance she had seen it reach when it was slowing down. And then all the bodies. Between the ice mercenaries and the milita, there were around 50 frozen corpses. Zeke finally pulled up.

"Damn thankful I didn't slide on that ice, how did you do that Kuo?"
"I, I don't know. Zeke, there's not time to waste. We have to get Cole back!"

"Alright, I load him up on the back of the pickup and take off, do you mind staying here and loo- ."

"NO! I mean, I don't want to stay here Zeke. The uh, corpses bother me. And I want to make sure to protect Cole. Yeah, yeah, there are plenty of people who would take advantage of his state like this." Kuo said with a bit too much anxiousness for Zeke to fall for it.

She wants to be with Cole. No, she needs to watch over him. "Alright Kuo, you go ahead and drive on back to the safe house. I'll stick around and see if I can't find that Blast Core. Just let me go ahead and grab these." Zeke said as he grabbed a box next to the still unconscious Cole.

"What are those?" Kuo asked as she buckled up and started the ignition.

"Just a bit of explosives, in case this thing ends up being locked up hard."

Kuo stare at Zeke for about a minute. "You mean to tell me you were going to drive around with Cole and a box of explosives together?! They weren't even tied down!"

"Sheesh, don't worry girl. Besides, it hardly ever rolled around too roughly. Uuuuhh, I think you should get going, for Cole's sake." Zeke stammered as he walked away, hoping that she wouldn't blast him in the back. He didn't let his breath out until he heard the rumble of the truck slowly die down.